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Osmiroid Rescue


BigBlot

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Not sure which type. There's writing on what looks like a gold plated nib, but it's soaking in 1/4 household ammonia right now to remove dried waterproof ink. Saw the guy when he put it in it, too. Mainly because the guy was me.

 

I can't remember where I found this pen. That was well over thirty years ago. It's filled with a squeeze cylinder sort of like a squeeze converter. At the time it was difficult to find cartridges locally, much less fountain pen ink in bottles. So, we had Pelikan ink at work we cut with water to put in technical pens, and I used that. Okay, so I didn't know better then.

 

The results weren't good. The ink wasn't a good choice, and quickly clogged the pen. Couldn't clean it, but couldn't bring myself to toss it. Some time back managed to clean the dried ink from the squeeze cylinder, but the pen remained clogged tight. Tonight, decided to try to remove the nib and feed and cleaning it that way.

 

First soaked it in household ammonia solution, and was surprised to see more ink dissolve out of the feed. I was only hoping it would loosen the ink enough where I could pull out the nib and feed. It did. The nib came somewhat easily, but the feed require I apply one of those flat rubber jar openers to get a better grip. It came out, along with dissolving ink.

 

Soaking it again. I'm thinking I'll have to gently remove the ink from the fins to get it working.

 

The nib is a bit of a puzzle. This is hardly a top-end pen. The plastic cap and body have a cheap feel, and still don't know what to make of that squeeze cylinder. And yet the nib looks gold plated.

 

Looking at my inks, all Noodler's, save a bottle of Platinum Carbon, I can't really bring myself to use them in this given the trouble I'm having cleaning it. Maybe an ink like Sheaffer Skrip instead.

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Welcome!

You are on the right track.

Water and patience, more water and a lot of patience ...

Personally and rarely use ammonia in a maximum concentration of 1/10, in order to avoid damaging the pen. perhaps to obtain complete cleaning an ultrasonic bath is necessary.

Good luck and if possible add a photo of this beauty.

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I don't like to let them soak long, because I don't know what, if anything, the ammonia solution will do. Before I turned in, I dumped the ammonia solution and rinsed the parts. The last soak showed only hard ink particles in the bottom of the small disposable cup.

 

Have already rubbed the parts with a wet paper towel, which removed the ink from the nib. Looking at the feed under a magnifier, can't tell if the fins are clean of ink or not. Thinking about wetting an old, soft, toothbrush, wetting the feed, and gently brushing it. Really don't know what I'm doing here.

 

Wouldn't call this pen a beauty. It's, well, cheap looking. It's red, with three chrome stripes circling the cap. The clip is chrome color, and it had an odd textured silver disk set in the top of the cap. Can now see that the writing on the nib is Osimiroid Polatip in medium soft, and the word England. The gold plating on a nib in a pen like this seems unusual.

 

Will try for photos later. Phone doesn't take good close-up shots.

 

Really thinking about an ink like Skrip Blue to try out the pen. Want something that will wash out easily for the first uses.

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Osmiroid, once made a bronze nib, they were the King of stiff Italic nibs, the only makers in the world. I have not only a six nib set, but one of their calligraphy books.

 

The Osmiroid pen I have is a lever pen with a rubber sac........ 'Later' they did make a cartridge one, that I never thought about getting in cartridges are now and have always been too expensive even sixty years ago. I have Esterbrooks to fit the nib and section into.

Even MB ink is cheaper than cartridges.

 

The old Osmiroid pens were made in England until they were bought up by China. The Chinese version does not fit an Esterbrook like the old one did and was a screw in nib.

So I don't know about your new Osmiroid.

It appears yours is one I've not read about before with the friction fitting feed. 

 

Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue washes out well, being a school ink. Lamy Blue, Waterman Blue all wash out of cloths and pens easily.

 

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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11 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

So I don't know about your new Osmiroid.

It appears yours is one I've not read about before with the friction fitting feed. 

Umm... not new. I think it was new old stock when I bought it over thirty years ago. Have found some examples on ebay. What I took for Polatip is Rolatip, and they show up with that description there. The three concentric silver rings toward the base of the plastic cap makes it easy to spot.

 

Bronze tip makes considerably more sense than gold plated.

 

Currently soaking it again after cleaning with an old toothbrush. Cleaning solution this time it Rapid-Eze and water. Amazingly, more ink is coming off. Thought it was pretty clean, and this soak was just to make sure.

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I have an Osmiroid that I picked up a couple of years ago at an estate sale a few blocks from my house.  It was apparently designed to be easy to remove the nib, and there was even a little gadget included in the case.  The pen was supposedly designed for using India ink with.  I haven't had a chance to play with it, though.  But India ink is the sort of thing that Rapid-o-Eze is particularly good for.

Now, of course I'm REALLY happy that I didn't listen, when this guy I knew when I was in college told me to put India ink in my Rapidographs, and just used the Koh-i-noor ink.  Hmmmm.  Maybe *that's* why I like Noodler's El Lawrence -- it reminds me of the Koh-i-noor ink.... :huh: 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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1 hour ago, BigBlot said:

Umm ... não é novo. Acho que era uma ação nova e velha quando comprei, há mais de trinta anos. Encontrei alguns exemplos no ebay. O que tomei por Polatip é Rolatip, e eles aparecem com essa descrição lá. Os três anéis concêntricos de prata em direção à base da tampa de plástico facilitam a localização.

 

Ponta de bronze faz muito mais sentido do que banhada a ouro.

 

Atualmente, encharcando novamente após a limpeza com uma escova de dentes velha. Solução de limpeza desta vez é Rapid-Eze e água. Surpreendentemente, mais tinta está saindo. Achei que estava bem limpo, e esse molho era só para ter certeza.

Big Blot, without an ultrasonic bath your task to remove the layers of paint accumulated over time will be quite long. Possibly she has already returned to writing with the cleanings you have already done. Here in Brazil most of the houses that work with glasses or electronics have this type of ultrasound, if you have someone you know who works with it, it doesn't take more than three minutes to do a cleaning that we wouldn't be able to do manually. I have an ultrasonic tub because I have some pens and I like to fix them as a hobby, I paid U $ 30, - and I consider it a very good investment. I suggest that you assemble your pen and test it, possibly it will be writing perfectly by now. Regards.

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Update:

 

The pen should now be usable. When no more ink came from the fins and section, I removed, gently rubbed, and cleared the fins with the low-tech means of blowing on them. Reassembled, put the tip in clear water, and the squeeze cylinder drew and expelled water with ease, and no ink residue. Very tempting to ink up with one of the Noodler's inks here and try it out.

 

I want to hold off on using Noodler's just now. For one, all of my inks are black. Want to use something like Skrip Blue for the first try. That way, if there's still some fine particles of dried ink or ink residue somewhere in the pen, it should show up easily against the blue. Also, Skrip Blue is washable, so not only should it be easy to remove from the pen, but also from anything that the pen might leak on if I haven's assembled it correctly.

 

On ultrasonic cleaners: Still have access to the one we used some decades ago at work. They also sell them for jewelry cleaners here. Either way, if I need to go the ultrasonic cleaner route, intend to get a jar of Rapido-Eze (not a bottle), since we used an old one as a cup for technical pens, putting cleaner and pens into that, setting it in the ultrasonic cleaner, and filling the space around it with water.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Update:

 

The Sheaffer Skrip ink arrived, and I tried filling the Osmiroid. Success. The pen drew in ink, and writes with a medium nib width. It works.

 

Now to see about pictures. No promises. My phone doesn't take good close-ups.

 

Since I have ink and a way to fill cartridges, I need to find the old Wearever cartridge that's somewhere in my desk drawer. Have a Wearever fountain pen that I only used until the ink ran out. This is the type of cartridge that has the metal ring on the bottom.

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Still writes just fine. Leaks just fine, too, where the squeeze bulb connects to the section. Seem to recall it did the same the first time I tried it, well over thirty years ago, and there was some dried black ink in the barrel threads. Need to do some research into this.

 

The Wearever, though, isn't leaking at all, and it writes.

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In the '50-60's a rubber sack was rated to be good for 30-40 years, by many of the posters when I was so 'noobie' I shined. ***....lately a rubber sack is only good 10 years, if one don't use modern (including Parker Penman) supersaturated inks......they can die with in days or weeks then.

 

So you need a new sac.......can find out all about it in the repair section. It's been too long since I did a re-sac, so don't remember well enough to say how.

 

 

*** I once had an smoky gray Esterbrook made between 1948-52, I found out because of lever design. And it was an inherited pen, from my German wife's uncle. I don't think re-sacking was big in Germany any time in the '80-90s when it could have been due for a new sac; in MB, Soennecken, and Kaweco, got dragged screaming and kicking into the piston world by Pelikan in the early '30's.

 

It was well over 60 years old when the sac finally gave up the ghost, becoming mushy, and having to replace it.

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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13 hours ago, BigBlot said:

Thanks. I was wondering about that. Still want to try for photos.

 

Does it look anything like this? When you said three rings my ears pricked up - I have a small stash of Osmiroid pens, I'm nerdy about "school" pens, and I've got three like this. One of them is all black with gold rings (which have nearly rubbed off due to age) and was originally a calligraphy pen, I used it at school for a while and drove all my teachers nuts bacause my handwriting is too small for an italic nib!

 

IMG_6095_crop.thumb.jpg.1cd3c59079ab30bf79993e56c7516262.jpg

 

IMG_6093_crop.thumb.jpg.73f5c825ce08630a49e2b36aef2924e9.jpg

 

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Essentially the same, except this one is a medium nib, not an italic. Below are attempts at photos. My phone really doesn't take good close-ups, and I had to lighten the exposure and crop the photos in GIMP. The first and second are the assembled pen. The third is of the section and sac. There is some ink visible along the sac, but it's coming from the section. The fourth is the cleaned section and feed, and the fifth is of the sac.

 

pen0.jpg.163e4a4ffd8915e836f99a72f8bfeaeb.jpg

pen1.jpg

pen2.jpg

pen3.jpg

pen4.jpg

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More info:

 

When I removed the sac, I could see ink between it and the section. Inside the section is a metal tube that the feed slips into, but it's blunt, and doesn't look like it would accept cartridges.

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My old lever action Osmiroid looks so different, having a screw in nib. I do have a 6 italic nib set I bought on English ebay. There was another, later pen that took cartridges; which still too the screw on nibs, and took Esterbrook nibs.

I'm not sure if I have that old Osmiroid anymore, because I was using two remaining Esterbrooks for that.

 

IMO those are the Chinese made pens (in they bought up the company ages and ages ago), in I had read that the pens didn't fit the old italic nibs........I'd expected a different threading....not a no screw on nib at all.

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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Pretty sure this pen was made in Great Britain. Both the nib and the sac have "England" on them. My speculation is that, like the Sheaffer No-Nonsense fountain pens, it either predates the calligraphy pens in the same section and barrell, or ran concurrent to them early on.

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Mine were '50-60's pens, and Osmiroid was the worlds leading producer (and outside a Pelikan set or the Shaffer Calligraphy) set the only one of Italic nibs. I also have a small calligraphy booklet or two from Osmiroid .

So am glad those 'new' English pens, which I'm sure came out before Osmiroid was sold to the Chinese, exist.

I remember when informed that the Chinese nibs didn't fit the old Osmiroid or Esterbrook, at being vastly disappointed.

 

One can learns something new every day on this com, often 3-4 things....newer folk, have the chance to learn 5-10 things.

Sometimes one learns what one learnt, is not the whole story....like now.

Thanks for the info.

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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